What archaeologists unearthed in the Neishlot alley. The most mysterious ancient children's burials Ancient archaeological excavations
Incredible facts
We tend to think of archaeologists as dusty experts who study people and their cultures through artifacts and human remains.
But sometimes they are more like ancient storytellers who, with the help found antiquities They tell the most interesting stories that magically transport us to distant times and places.
In the stories below, we are transported to the ancient worlds of long-forgotten children. Some stories touch your heart, others are simply mysterious, and some are terrible.
10. Revival of Oriens
In October 2013, in a field in Leicestershire, England, a treasure hunter used a metal detector to discover meter-long coffin of a Roman child. To avoid talking about the child in the third person, the scientific community decided to name him "Oriens", which means "to rise" (like the Sun).
It is believed that Oriens was buried in the 3rd-4th centuries. It is not known for certain how old the child was, but the bracelets on his hands suggest that it was a girl.
Bracelets from a girl's hand
Bracelets Clasp
Oriens must have lived in a wealthy family or had high social status because she was found in a lead coffin, which was rare at the time, especially in matters of child burials.
Coffin inside
Most children were then interred, dressed in a shroud (clothing for the deceased). Only a few bone fragments remained from the baby. However, archaeologists have been able to piece together some details of her life, including information about the society in which she lived.
They learned a lot by analyzing some of the resins found in her coffin.
Oriens baby teeth
According to the stories of Stuart Palmer from the Warwickshire archaeological team ( Archeology Warwickshire), presence frankincense, olive oil, as well as pistachio nut oil in the soil, found in the coffin suggests that Oriensa can be classified as one of the very few Roman burials of people with the highest status.
The girl was buried according to very expensive Mediterranean and Middle Eastern customs.
"Nails" that held the internal components of the coffin
The resins masked the smell of a decomposing body during afterlife rituals, which, according to the ancients, made the transition to the afterlife easier. From a social point of view, this suggests that the inhabitants of Roman Britain continued to follow continental burial rites, so they must have imported oils and resins from the Middle East.
9. Secrets of a child singer
Almost 3000 years ago, seven-year-old Tjayasetimu sang in the choir in the temple of the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. Despite the fact that the girl took most of the secrets with her to the grave, the curators of the British Museum, where her mummy was exhibited in 2014, were able to find out some details about the child.
It is not known for certain where she lived and worked, because the British Museum bought the mummy from a dealer back in 1888. However, Tjayasetimu's body is incredibly well preserved. In the 1970s, as part of a restoration project, they found hieroglyphs and drawings under bandages blackened by oils on the body.
Tools that Tjayasetimu may have used
Thanks to the inscriptions, it was possible to find out her name and position. The name Tjayasetimu, which means "the goddess Isis will defeat them", protects against evil spirits. Her work as a singer in the temple was considered very important to the god Amun.
The reason why the girl received such a “position” is also unknown: her voice or family connections. What is known is that she was an important person because her body was mummified with a golden mask on her face.
Scan reveals baby girl's teeth
In 2013, a CT scan showed that her body, including her face and hair, was still well preserved. With no signs of long-term illness or injury, she is believed to have died from a short-term illness such as cholera.
8. The Mystery of the Sewer Babies
In the Roman Empire, infanticide was widely practiced to limit family size because reliable methods of birth control did not exist. This helped conserve scarce resources and improve the lives of other family members.
Children under 6 months of age were not treated as human beings at all in Roman society.
A burial was discovered in this well
However, even knowing this fact, researchers were still horrified when they made a terrible discovery in 1988 in Ashkelon, on the southern coast of Israel. Archaeologists have discovered a mass grave of almost 100 children in an ancient sewer underneath Roman baths.
Church ruins in Ashkelon
Most of the bones found were intact, and scientists believe the children were thrown into the sewer immediately after death. Considering the general age of the children and the absence of signs of disease, the cause of death was almost certainly infanticide.
Based on these bones, experts determined that the dead were infants.
Although the Romans favored male children, researchers have been unable to find evidence that they intentionally killed more female babies. They were unable to find confirmation of this even when studying this find.
Some experts note that the bathhouse above the sewer also worked as a brothel. They suggest that the babies were the unwanted children of the women of the ancient profession who worked there.
Some female infants may have been spared their lives so that they would later become courtesans. Despite the fact that in the Roman Empire both women and men were engaged in the most ancient profession, the former were still more in demand.
Ancient archaeological site
7. An unusual child of metalworkers
About 4,000 years ago, in prehistoric Britain, children were tasked with decorating jewelry and weapons with gold threads as fine as human hair. On some specimens there were more than 1000 such threads per square centimeter of wood.
Scientists discovered this after an ornate wooden dagger handle was found in the Bush Mound area near Stonehenge in the 1800s.
Daggers found at the same time in Bush. Salisbury Plain. Were discovered in the richest and most important Bronze Age grave ever found in Britain
The work is so intricate that it is difficult to see all the details with the naked eye. After research, experts came to the conclusion that, most likely, teenagers and children under the age of 10 were the authors of such extraordinary craftsmanship on the handle of the dagger.
Without a magnifying glass, an ordinary adult would not be able to do this because his vision is not sharp enough. After the age of 21, a person’s vision gradually begins to deteriorate.
Although the children used simple tools, they had a special understanding of design and geometry. However, they paid a high price for beautiful handicraft. Their vision quickly deteriorated myopathy overtook them at the age of 15, and by the age of 20 they were already partially blind.
This made them unsuitable for other work, so they had to rely on their communities.
6. Very good parents
Believing that the attitude of some scientists towards Neanderthals was not entirely objective, archaeologists from the University of York decided to rewrite the history of these prehistoric people. Until recently it was believed that Neanderthal children lived dangerous, difficult and short lives.
However, the team of the above archaeologists came to different conclusions after studying the social and cultural factors of the life of the first people from finds from different times in different places throughout Europe.
"Opinions about Neanderthals are changing," says Penny Spikins, lead researcher. “Partly due to the fact that they mated with us, and this already speaks of our similarity. But the latest findings turned out to be no less important. There is a fundamental difference between a harsh childhood and a childhood spent in harsh conditions."
A Neanderthal child examines his reflection in the water. Neanderthal Museum in Kropina, Croatia
Spikins believes that Neanderthal children were very attached to their families, and families were close-knit. He also notes that children were trained to handle tools. In two places in two different countries, a team of archaeologists discovered stones that were well-cut compared to others that were chipped.
They looked like children were learning from adults how to make tools.
Although there is no conclusive evidence for this claim, Spikins believes that prehistoric children "played peek-a-boo" in imitation of adults, because the same "game" was played by humans and great apes.
When studying the burials of Neanderthal infants and children, Spikins came to the conclusion that parents interred their offspring with great care, since the remains of children, rather than adults, that have survived to this day were more often found.
The archaeological team also emphasizes that there is evidence that parents cared for their sick or injured children for several years.
The most ancient finds of archaeologists
5. Boy Scouts of Ancient Egypt
To learn about how children lived in the Ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, historians examined about 7,500 documents believed to be from the sixth century. The city was home to more than 25,000 people, and was considered the Roman administrative center of its area, in which Egypt's weaving industry flourished.
More than a century ago, artifacts from the time of the existence of Oxyrhynchus were found, after analyzing which historians came to the conclusion that a youth group of Boy Scouts, known as the “gymnasium,” was actively working in Ancient Egypt. young people were trained to become good citizens.
Boys on a camel. Mosaic from Late Antiquity, early 6th century.
Great Palace Mosaic Museum in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Boys born into free Egyptian, Greek and Roman families were accepted for education. Despite its "affluent" demographics, gymnasium membership was limited to 10-25 percent of the city's families.
For boys who applied to study at the gymnasium, this was a transition to adulthood. They became full-fledged adults when they married in their early twenties. Girls who married in their teens prepared for their role by working in their parents' homes.
Boys from free families who did not go to grammar schools began to work as children under contract for several years. Many contracts were for work in weaving production.
Roman boy with Egyptian style hairstyle. A side strand of hair is cut off and sacrificed to the gods for the upcoming coming of age ceremony. First half of the second century AD. Museum of Cultural History, Oslo.
Historians have discovered one student contract concluded with a girl. But, as it turned out, her case was unique because she was an orphan and had to pay off the debts of her late father.
Children of slaves could enter into the same work contracts as boys born into free families. But unlike the latter, who lived with their families, the children of slaves could be sold. In this case, they lived with their owners. Discovered documents showed that some slave children were sold as early as two years old.
4. The mystery of the “elk” geoglyph
In this story, our discovery of the past is driven by curiosity about what the future will hold. Images taken from space in 2011 revealed the existence of a giant elk geoglyph (a geometric pattern painted on the ground) in the Ural Mountains, which is believed to predate the famous thousand-year-old Nazca geoglyphs found in Peru.
A type of masonry known as "chipstone" suggests that the structure may have been built around 3000 - 4000 BC. BC.
Nazca geoglyphs
The structure is about 275 meters long with two horns, four legs and a long snout facing north. In prehistoric times, the geoglyph could be seen from a nearby ridge. He looked like a shiny white figure against the green grass. Today this place is covered with soil.
Archaeologists were amazed at the thoughtfulness of the design. “The moose’s hooves were made from small crushed stones and clay,” explains Stanislav Grigoriev, a specialist at the Russian Academy of Sciences. "The walls were very low, I believe, and the passages between them were very narrow. The situation was also in the muzzle area: rubble and clay, four small wide walls and three passages."
"Moose" geoglyph
The researchers also found evidence of two sites where fires were lit only once. They believe that these places were used for important rituals.
However, many questions remain unanswered, especially such as: who built this geoglyph and why. There is no archaeological evidence that the culture during this period was so advanced that people could have built such a structure in this region.
But experts believe the most interesting discovery concerns children. They were able to find more than 150 instruments at the site, ranging in length from 2 to 17 centimeters. They believe that these instruments belonged to children who worked side by side with adults as part of a community project.
That is, it was not slave labor, but joint efforts in order to achieve an important goal.
Archeology: finds
3. Children of the clouds
In July 2013, in the high-altitude Amazonas region of Peru, archaeologists discovered 35 sarcophagi, each no more than 70 centimeters long. The small coffins led researchers to believe they belonged to the children of the mysterious Chachapoya culture, also known as the "cloud warriors" because they lived in mountain rainforests.
Between the 9th century and 1475, when their territories were conquered by the Incas, the Chachapoya founded villages and farms on steep mountain slopes, raised pigs and llamas there, and fought among themselves.
Their culture was eventually destroyed by diseases such as smallpox that European explorers brought with them.
Very little is known about the Chachapoyas and their children because they did not leave any written language behind. However, according to Spanish documents from the 1500s, they were fierce warriors.
Pedro Cieza de Leon, who chronicled the history of Peru, described their appearance this way: " They are the whitest and most beautiful of all the people I have seen in India, and their wives are so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserve to be the wives of the Incas and live in the temple of the Sun."
But these cloud warriors did leave something behind: mummified bodies in unusual and strange sarcophagi that were found on high ledges overlooking the valley. The clay coffins were arranged vertically and were very similar in design to the decoration of people: tunics, jewelry and even trophy skulls.
But no one knows why children were buried in their own cemetery separately from adults. It is also unclear why all the small sarcophagi “looked” to the west, while the adult coffins were positioned differently.
Mysterious archaeological finds
2. Gifts to the gods of the lakes
Ancient Bronze Age villages spread out around the alpine lakes of Germany and Switzerland. When some of the villages were discovered during excavations in the 1970s and 1980s, archaeologists couldn't be happier because they found more than 160 houses aged 2600 - 3800 years.
These were houses along the shoreline of the lake that were flooded. To protect themselves from rising water levels, residents often moved to less dangerous areas, closer to land. When conditions improved, they returned again.
It recently turned out that the search team of the “Valley” expedition spent three years excavating in the village cemetery.
This story began last summer, when we were contacted by the Old Russian Culture Committee and asked to look at a place on the outskirts of the village of Cherenchitsy. Having gone to the site, my colleague S.E. Toropov, having examined the shore where the excavations were being carried out, was convinced that there was a village cemetery there.
Recently this story surfaced again, and I managed to contact the commander of the detachment that carried out the work there, N.G. Babintseva. Here's what we found out.
As a matter of fact, the old situation repeated itself once again. A search party, while searching for unburied fallen soldiers, came across an old cemetery and mistook it for the burial place of civilians who died during the war.
The village itself has an ancient history.
In the Middle Ages, Cherenchitsy was the center of a large district-pogost of the same name, divided by the river. Lovat into two halves, located respectively on the territory of Shelonskaya and Derevskaya Pyatina. The earliest description of the village that has reached us. Cherenchitsy was preserved in the Census Book of the Shelonskaya Pyatina of 1539. According to its data, on the territory of the village there is a c. St. John the Theologian. The Cherenchitsky churchyard was first mentioned in the Census quitrent book of the Derevskaya Pyatina, compiled around 1495. In the 16th century. located in Cherenchitsy c. John is mentioned in the Parish Book of the Novgorod House of St. Sophia in 1576/1577.
According to academician V.L. Yanin, Cherenchitsy (under the name Chernyany (Chernyane)) are mentioned in the Novgorod I Chronicle under 1200 in the message about the Lithuanian raid on the Southern Ilmen region: “Lovot was taken by Lithuania and to Nalyutsya, from Belee to Svinort and to Vorcha Wednesday; and the Novgorodians chased after them and to Tsrnyan and fought with them.” This localization is supported from an onomastic point of view by V. L. Vasiliev.
During the war, this village found itself on the front line and was destroyed during the fighting. At the same time, positions, naturally, were laid out in all convenient places, including in the cemetery adjacent to the center. St. John the Theologian.
Many years later, in the spring of 2013, members of the search party discovered human bones on the outskirts of the village of Cherenchitsy, lying on the dirt bank of the river. Lovat. 
Excavations on the banks of Lovot
For three years, a detachment from Kirov conducted search operations, as a result of which the bone remains of at least 80 people were recovered, including numerous infant and child skeletons. There are very few adult men. No personal items or fragments of clothing were found with the remains. Found around were a German machine gun belt, a few shell casings and cartridges from German and Soviet weapons, 2 shell casings from a large-caliber projectile, several casings from an anti-tank rifle, 1 or 2 casings from a German rocket launcher, broken bricks, broken thin glass, a dozen forged nails, fragments of boards, several large shell fragments.
In addition, 11 pectoral crosses were found, which can tentatively be dated to the 18th - early centuries. XX century 
Pectoral crosses and a fragment of a vessel with the image of John the Evangelist found during the work
"A mug from an excavation under the parapet"
The most amazing thing is that, having found the accompanying remains, fragments of decayed wood and forged nails, they could not figure out what it meant. Although it is clear to anyone familiar with excavations of burials that these are the remains of tombs. The soldiers and the detachment commander could not understand why there were many scattered bones and their fragments among the burials. And this is another sign of a long-functioning cemetery - bones from destroyed burials.
Cleared skeleton. The position is typical for an Orthodox burial. Lying on his back, arms folded on his chest
It is possible that among the skeletons found there could be the remains of unburied soldiers, but the bulk are burials from the old cemetery, partially destroyed and disturbed by positions.
The correspondence described how some skeletons were found in groups, with mothers clutching their children. But this is hard to believe. I already heard such stories in 2007, when, under the same circumstances, a zhalnik was excavated near the village of Khotynya, where there was nothing of the kind. The method of work, in which the position of the skeletons is not fixed, allows you to draw any conclusions if you have imagination.
Pitholes and excavation methods
All this allows us to conclude that as a result of the search work, the church cemetery containing burials from the 18th century to the beginning of the century was damaged. XX century, and possibly an earlier period. The main reason for this situation, apparently, was the lack of information among the leaders of the search team about the location of archaeological monuments in the search area (which in fact is an excavated cemetery) and the inability to distinguish wartime objects from cemetery burials of the Middle Ages and the 18th - early 18th century. XX centuries
Considering the antiquity of the village, it is worth assuming that much more ancient archaeological sites may be located on its territory.
Directly next to the excavation site is the destroyed Church of St. John the Evangelist. The detachment commander knew about it, but for some reason did not suspect that cemeteries are usually located around old churches.
How one can be engaged in search work for 15-20 years and not know this, and even not be able to distinguish a village cemetery from military graves, is beyond my understanding. After all, judging by the description, there was nothing at all that would allow us to recognize these burials as military (the shell casings and cartridges lying on the surface do not count - there are plenty of them everywhere).
Moreover, the problem of destruction of burial grounds has been raised more than once. In 2007, a medieval zhalnik near the village of Khotynya, Shimsky district was destroyed; in 2009, a search party excavated a zhalnik near the village of Braklovitsy, Starorussky district (positions there were also located right on the burial ground). We talked about this several times, wrote to Dolina headquarters, and met with the leadership.
But in the end, the detachment submitted reports to the Dolina headquarters for three years and no one there was concerned about such a strange burial. The remains of women and children have been reburied for three years, and no one is suspicious of the fact that there is not a single reason to consider them dead during the Great Patriotic War. In my opinion, this is a sign of big problems in organizing the search movement and control over the work of search teams. I hope that the new leadership of Dolina will take steps to solve this problem and the repetition of such cases will be avoided.
I don’t know how the soldiers of this detachment must feel, realizing that their labors were not just wasted, but caused serious harm...
In conclusion, I once again urge members and commanders of search teams to use the Memo we prepared (TAKE CARE OF ARCHEOLOGICAL MONUMENTS! (memo to a search squad member)). If those digging in Cherenchitsy were familiar with it, they would immediately understand that this is not a war burial (all the signs are there).
In turn, if a controversial situation arises, we are ready to go to the work site and find out what was actually discovered. We have done this many times already. They never refused. when we were asked to look at a “strange burial” (although we must admit that this happened only a few times) and went to the place (for example, a video about one of the trips
Excavations without an open sheet are prohibited by the Law on the Protection and Use of Historical and Cultural Monuments
In archaeological research, the archaeologist strives for one goal - the most complete study of the historical process. But the methods of these studies are different. There are no universal excavation techniques. Two monuments belonging to the same culture can be excavated using different techniques, if required by the characteristics of the objects being excavated. An archaeologist must approach excavations creatively and must maneuver during the excavation process.
The difference between one monument and another often depends on the characteristics of the archaeological culture to which the monument belongs. You need to know well not only the proposed structure of the monument, but also the culture as a whole. But this is not enough, since this or that site does not always contain antiquities of the same type. For example, some monuments contain incoming burials from other cultures.
When excavating, the archaeologist should be clear about his responsibility to science. You cannot hope that someone will complete what the archaeologist was unable or did not have time to do. All necessary observations of the source and conclusions about its structural features must be made in the field.
Excavation of burial grounds. The methods of excavating burial grounds are different from the methods of excavating burial mounds. The individual types of these two main groups of ancient burials require further differentiation of the methods of their excavation.
In burial grounds, external signs of individual graves are usually absent. Therefore, the tasks of the initial stage of excavations are closely related to the task of exploration: it is necessary
outline the entire burial ground, and identify all the graves in the study area, without missing a single one. The peculiarities of their search and excavation primarily depend on the characteristics of the soil in which they lie.
Opening of stains, layers, things and structures. The first link on which the success of excavations depends is the timely identification of stains, layers, objects and structures. All these archaeological sites are discovered with a digger’s shovel, so in order to identify them in a timely manner, it is necessary that each digger understands the purpose of the excavation and knows his responsibilities. This, of course, does not mean that the discovery of all spots, things and structures can be entrusted to a digger. His work must be constantly monitored by scientific staff.
In order to more fully understand their significance and relationship with other destination objects, excess soil must be removed from open spots of structures and finds, i.e. they must be brought to the state they had before they were covered with earth. Clearing a soil spot involves identifying its boundaries as much as possible and is usually done with light horizontal cuts with a shovel. In this case, the cuts should be made in such a way as to not so much cut as to scrape off the soil with which the stain was made, if possible along its daytime surface. This means that the level of the bottom of the formation usually does not coincide with the upper level of the spot, the depth of which needs to be measured
Clearing of structures occurs in such a way that every seam, every detail of the building, every fragment of it, fallen or preserved in place, is visible. In this regard, the earth is cleared from all surfaces, from cracks, from under individual pieces, etc. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the part being cleared does not lose balance and retains the position and appearance in which it was before the growth of the cultural layer . Therefore, support points are cleared with extreme caution, and sometimes not cleared at all until the structure is dismantled, if necessary.
Finally, the clearing of finds aims to find out the position in which the thing lies, its contours, state of preservation and underlying soil.
Small tool. When clearing, things should not move from their place, and the earth is removed from them very carefully. It is usually convenient to use a kitchen knife or a thinner point such as a lancet for this purpose. In some cases, a honey cutter, a plaster trowel (especially for clearing adobe structures), and even a screwdriver and an awl are convenient for clearing. Round (diameter 30 - 50 mm) or flat (flat 75 - 100 mm) paint brushes are also used. Often a small brush (usually used for washing hands) is used. All these tools are also used when clearing structures. For clearing some masonry, a golik broom is convenient, and for masonry of varying state of preservation, brooms of varying hardness are used. Sometimes the earth is blown out of the cracks with bellows.
When using a cutting tool, it is best to use its blade, and it should not be sharp. Picking the ground or structures with the end of a knife is dangerous - you can damage the object. Some archaeologists make "knives" from wood. This tool is especially good for clearing bones: it does not scratch them. Cleared objects need to be photographed, drawn and described.
Searching for burial pits. Opening techniques
burial pits are based on certain features that are more easily identified in horizontal or vertical sections of these pits (“in plan” or “in profile”) when they are thoroughly cleaned with a shovel.
The first sign of any holes may be a difference in color and density of the untouched continent and the softer dug up earth filling the hole, the layers of which, when mixed, have a darker color. Sometimes the grave spot is colored only along the edge, and in the center does not have a specific color. In cases where the grave contains painted bones, the filling of the hole may include some paint impurities, also indicating dug up earth. If the remains of a corpse are placed in a pit, the soil filling it is often colored with ash.
But it is not always possible to detect a hole in the plan, especially in sandy soil. In this case, you can try to find it in a profile that more clearly conveys the color and structural features of the soil.
Stripping. If the continent and the filling of the hole (not only a grave, but, for example, a grain hole in a settlement) are the same color, you need to pay attention to the slightest roughness of the horizontal stripping, since dug up earth does not give such a smooth cut as undug up, and roughness may be a sign of a hole. In such a case, it often turns out that holes that are not noticeable in dry soil are perfectly visible after a strong
rain. Therefore, some archaeologists pour water (from a watering can) on the cleaned surface to open the pits.
Application of a mortar. Finally, a common way to open holes is to probe the soil with a probe, based on the fact that the soil in the hole is usually softer to the touch than the mainland. It should be borne in mind that if the pit is located in a cultural layer or in very soft sand, it can be difficult to detect the difference in the filling density of the grave and the surrounding earth, and when searching with a probe, there may be gaps, and the found pits do not always turn out to be graves. On the contrary, sometimes the grave soil, saturated with the products of decomposition of the corpse, hardens, and the probe does not detect such a hole. Thus, omissions and errors are possible when using the probe.
Excavation of a burial ground with an area of. The main method of excavating a burial ground is continuous excavation. At the same time, not only stains of grave pits are discovered, but also the remains of funeral feasts, offerings to the dead, as well as funeral rites are more fully revealed. In addition, this method allows one to explore the space between graves, which is important if the burial ground is located in a cultural layer (such cemeteries are common, for example, in ancient cities).
The excavation must include the entire estimated area of the burial ground, which is determined by the topographic pattern of the location. The reference points for this are the places of destroyed grave pits and the places where bones were found. The layout of the excavation is carried out according to the rules for excavations at settlements (see p. 172), and within the excavation a grid of squares measuring 2X2 each is laid out, the corner stakes of which are leveled (see p. 176). Then a plan of the area is taken on a scale of 1:40 or 1:50 with an excavation and a grid of squares marked on it. Stones protruding from the ground are placed on the same plan, which may turn out to be part of the grave lining or another burial structure (the ground parts of the stones can be shaded).
Excavations are carried out along one line of squares or along two adjacent lines. The task is to expose the continent, but the soil layer can be quite thick, and it is excavated in layers up to 20 cm thick. Excavation of the second, third and subsequent layers is carried out with care so as not to disturb
Rice. 27. Grave spot, Late Dnyakov culture. Borisoglebsky
burial ground, Vladimir region. (Photo by T. B. Popova)
possible structures - stones, wood, bones, shards, etc. Everything that is found is left in place until the remains are completely exposed in width and depth, cleaned up and recorded on a special plan on a scale of 1:20 (or 1:10) , is photographed, described and only then removed.
After completing the excavation of the first strip of squares, both of its profiles are drawn. The drawing shows the top line according to leveling data, the soil layer with all layers and inclusions, parts of grave pits and burial structures, if they are included in the profile. If the remains of a burial structure are not completely exposed, they are not dismantled until the excavations of the next strip of squares reveal them entirely. Spots of grave pits found on the mainland are also not excavated until they are completely exposed. If no traces of burial pits, structures, or cultural layers are found in the trench, then it can be used to transfer earth from a neighboring trench there. Cuttings to completely open grave pits are made only if the area where they go is not intended to be excavated.
When excavating in a cultural layer, it is difficult to trace the outlines of burial pits, so the role of thorough cleaning of the excavation base is especially important. It should also be borne in mind that in the south there are burials in a thick layer of ancient chernozem at a depth of only 30-35 cm from the modern surface, and burial pits in the chernozem are not visible.
Shapes of grave pits. The pits of ancient graves are usually close to quadrangular with rounded corners (almost oval), and their walls are slightly inclined. Pits in sandy soil (Fatyanovo graves) have strongly beveled walls so that their edges do not crumble. Usually, at one end of such a grave there was a sloping exit from the pit.
The depth of ancient graves varies - in the Fatyanovo burial grounds from 30 cm to 210 cm, in ancient necropolises - up to 6 m, the wells of catacomb burials reach a depth of 10 m. One can point out grave pits with vertical walls found in ancient necropolises, wide at the top and narrowing at the bottom with a ledge. In the narrow part of such a pit there is a burial, covered from above by rolling logs or stones, so these burials are
nia are known in archeology as shouldered graves. If the earth that seeped through the logs of the knurled stone filled the grave pit even before these logs lost their strength, they can be traced in the form of a horizontal layer of wood decay. If the logs, having broken in the middle, collapsed into the pit, forming a Y-shaped figure, they can disrupt the integrity of the burial and make clearing very difficult.
A log grave from the Bronze Age presents a similar picture. The walls of such graves were rarely lined with logs, but were almost always covered with knurling, which rotted over time.
Undercuts. Graves with linings are deep, regardless of whether there is a mound over them or not. Such graves are represented by a well (sometimes stepped), ending with a lining - a cave in which the burial is located. Caves could only be built in dense continental material, so their ceiling usually does not settle, but only crumbles somewhat, covering the burial. Between the scree and the new ceiling there is often free space, almost the same as when the lining was built. The hole connecting the well with the lining is sometimes closed with a “mortgage” - logs, stones, a wall made of mud brick, and in ancient graves even amphorae. Therefore, almost no earth penetrated into the cave. The well was filled with earth, but it is often filled with large stones and even stone slabs.
Earthen crypts. In some cases, an inclined passage called dromos leads to the burial, which is characteristic of another type of burial structure - earthen crypts or catacombs. At the end of the open dromos, a small corridor was cut out in the mainland, which led to a vaulted burial chamber - an earthen crypt measuring 2 - 3 m wide and 3 - 4 m long. The entrance to such a crypt was closed with a large stone slab, which was moved away during repeated burials, of which in some cases there were more than ten in the crypt. A well could also serve as an entrance to the crypt. Sometimes at the bottom of the well there are entrances to not one, but two crypts.
In other cases, the earthen crypt is cut into the wall of a ravine. These are catacombs such as Saltov (near Kharkov), Chmi (North Caucasus) or Chufut-Kale (Bakhchisarai). The chamber contains the main burial, and at the entrance there are slave burials.
S. L. Pletneva recommends excavating the catacombs in long narrow excavations (up to 4 m), adjacent to each other. This achieves the necessary continuous coverage of the territory of the burial ground by the researcher, as well as saving money, since earth can be sprinkled onto the excavated and studied area from the next excavated strip. This method is called by archaeologists “to the pass”, or “moving trench method”.
Techniques for opening grave pits. The methods of opening grave pits do not depend on whether there are mounds above these pits or not; in both cases the same methods are used. The grave spot discovered in the excavation must be drawn with a knife and its longitudinal center line must be marked with a stake on each side. The level of the mainland at the stakes is leveled. The cord between the stakes is not yet stretched. On the general plan of the excavation, the contours of the grave spot, the center line, the places of the stakes, as well as the number of the grave are marked (see Fig. 31, a). If several graves have already been excavated in this burial ground, the numbering should be continued, rather than starting over, so that there are no identical numbers.
The plan of the grave spot is drawn on a scale of 1:10, with the axis oriented vertically, and its deviation from the north direction is indicated on the drawing (with an arrow and in degrees along the compass). The coordinates of the points are measured from the center line of the grave, for which the cord between the stakes is used. Several main measurements are marked on the plan (see Fig. 31, a). Measurements are calculated in the same units, usually in centimeters (not 3 m 15 cm, but 315 cm). Depth measurements are made from the conditional zero point of the excavation (see p. 173) and it is these numbers that are indicated on the plan of the grave. Conversion of the depth from the conventional zero to the depth from the surface of the earth can be given in the diary with special instructions.
Rice. 31. Drawings of the grave pit:
a - the contours of the grave are plotted on the excavation drawing, the main distances are shown; A-B - center line; the number of the grave is indicated; b - a similar plan shows the contours of the grave pit, which changed as it deepened; on the same plan there is a drawing of the skeleton and the vessel; c, d, e, f - possible methods of expanding the grave pit; g - a method of projecting the center line onto the bottom and walls of the grave pit. (According to M. P. Gryaznov)
The filling of the pit is excavated in horizontal layers of a certain thickness. Usually a layer of 20 cm is removed (the specified thickness of the layer is observed exactly), which approximately corresponds to the height of the iron blade of the shovel. In this case, the shovel cuts the layer vertically and into thin slices (so that the earth does not fall off the shovel), which allows the excavator to monitor changes in the composition of the earth and possible finds. After removing each layer, its base is horizontally cleaned with light sections to make it easier to observe and record changes in the composition of the filling of the grave pit. It is impossible to dig a grave pit to its entire depth at once, since there may be things and various layers in it that can shed light on the nature of the burial. In addition, the position and level of the skeleton (or the remains of a corpse) are unknown in advance, and therefore the skeleton is easy to disturb.
When excavating, for example, Fatyanovo burials, it is recommended to leave an edge in the grave pit - a narrow vertical wall of untouched earth that divides the pit in half and in the side surfaces of which the features of the filling of the grave and its outlines can be more easily traced. Upon reaching the burial, such an edge is dismantled.
As a rule, the filling of the pit is dismantled along its walls, strictly within the soil spot. If the filling does not differ from the soil in which the hole is dug, and the walls of the hole cannot be traced when deepening, dismantling the filling is carried out within the area and strictly vertically. The outline of the hole often changes as it gets deeper. In this case, its contours are entered into one drawing, and each contour is provided with a depth mark (see Fig. 31.6 and Fig. 32.6).
If the contours of the grave pit are clearly traceable and the soil is not too loose, some archaeologists remove its filling, retreating inward from the boundaries of the pit (10-15 cm). Having taken out 2 - 3 layers, i.e. 40 - 60 cm, the earth remaining near the walls is dug up and with light blows from above the left strip of earth is collapsed. In this case, the earth often crumbles exactly along the border of the grave pit, exposing its ancient section. Sometimes on this section it is possible to notice traces of the tools with which the hole was dug. This technique is repeated until the walls of the grave are completely exposed and studied.
Rice. 32. Drawings of the grave pit:
a - the main dimensions are indicated, the depth at which the contour line is drawn, the arrow directed to the north and the number of degrees of deviation from this direction; b - a similar drawing shows the contours of the grave pit, which changed as they deepened, and the depths at which they were measured; c - on the same plan (b) the found bone and the find are plotted; d - in the same drawing the top layer of the coating is sketched. (According to M. P. Gryaznov)
The described technique cannot be used during excavations, for example, of ancient burials, where the dead were sometimes placed in wooden sarcophagi covered with carvings and plaster decorations. These sarcophagi have become decayed wood, but the burial ground adjacent to the sarcophagus often retains an imprint of such decorations, which can be exposed by carefully clearing away the wood dust. After clearing, it is recommended to make a plaster cast of the impression.
Individual objects are entered on the plan according to measurements from the center line. The plan (and label) indicates the name of the item, the number of the find, its depth; bones, wood, stones are sketched without numbers, unless there are special circumstances (see Fig. 32, c). When digging up the next layer, all found objects remain in their places until their relationship is clarified. In this case, the entire complex is sketched, photographed, and described. If there is no such connection, these objects are removed and the excavations continue.
If the hole is cramped or deep, and the soil is unstable, the excavation is expanded in one direction or in all directions (see Fig. 31, c, d, e, f). In this case, the center line pegs must be preserved (that is why it is advisable to drive them no closer than 1 m from the edge of the pit spot).
Often the burial has a mortgage or wooden ceiling, which is cleared with a knife and brush, sketched and, as always, photographed and described. To draw the ceiling or finds in the pit, it is convenient to project the center line down and take measurements from its projection (see Fig. 31, g). A sketch of the ceilings is made on the general plan of the grave and the direction of the wood fibers is shown by shading (see Fig. 32, d).
If the grave pit has ledges or there are structures in it, you need to draw its section. To do this, you need to take leveling measurements along the projected center line every 50 cm or more often and, using these data, draw out the unevenness of the walls of the pit or its bottom. In some cases, a transverse incision is made perpendicular to the first one.
If the burial ceilings have several layers, their sections are sketched sequentially, paying special attention to sketching the underside of each ceiling, which can be done from the prints. This means that this sketch must be done after the top
layer, and only when it is finished can you clean up and sketch the bottom layer. It is better to put the second and subsequent layers on a special drawing so as not to create a clutter of symbols.
Clearing the skeleton. With the gradual excavation of the filling of the grave pit, some signs of the approach of burial can be traced. The closer to the burial, the more noticeable is the sagging of the layers of earth in the cross-section of the grave pit, which is explained by the failure of the earth, which pressed through the rotted coffin. With further deepening, a dark spot of hard earth appears, glued together with the products of decomposition of the corpse. The lower you go, the more this spot increases. Finally, even right above the skeleton, it is sometimes possible to trace the remains of the coffin. In non-
In some cases, there are some vessels near the skeleton, and their appearance warns of the proximity of the skeleton. These signs make the archaeologist’s work easier, but in some cases they may not be present, so the archaeologist’s attention should not weaken.
At the first appearance of the skeleton or vessels, the earth is carefully removed to their level. The skeleton and accompanying inventory are cleared in this order.
First, a strip of earth about 20 cm wide is removed between the skull and the wall of the grave up to the litter, on which
the skeleton lies in the swarm, or, if there is none, to the bottom of the grave pit. If the bottom is not determined by the composition of the earth, then the earth is removed to the level at which the skull lies. Then clearing is carried out to the right (or left) of the skull to clear the shoulder, determine the position of the skeleton and finish clearing the corner of the grave. Then the other side of the skull is cleared. Next, clearing is carried out from the skull to the legs (and in this area from the spine to the sides).
The earth is not cut horizontally with a knife (this is dangerous for finds), but only vertically. If the thickness of the soil to be opened is more than 7-10 cm, then dismantling is carried out as if in two floors. The soil in the cleared area is removed immediately to the bottom of the grave, so that clearing does not have to be done a second time. The cut soil should not be allowed to fall on the cleared part of the burial. It must be thrown (for example, with a shovel) onto the uncleared side of the grave pit, and from there thrown up with a shovel. Bones and things cannot be moved. If they lie above the general level, then you need to leave “butts” under them in the form of not too steep cones. The remains of the bedding at the bottom of the grave and the wall fastenings are cleared and left in place until the skeleton is dismantled.
When opening Paleolithic burials, they follow the general rules for clearing pits and bones, but there are some peculiarities. The main one is to determine the filling of the grave pit and the filling of its bottom. In the case when the filling of the pit does not differ from the mainland, it is recommended to reach the bottom (i.e., the skeleton) in some place and, guided by the skeleton, feel the contours of the grave pit. When clearing the filling of the pit and the skeleton, the question of the accidental or intentional position of each find is clarified.
Every bone and every object is sketched on the plan and only very small things that cannot be depicted to scale are marked with crosses. In the latter case, their location must be sketched on a separate sheet in full size.
Skeleton bones and things are removed after photographing and fixing on the plan, without destroying the “priests” if possible. If things or bones lie in several layers, first remove the upper ones, clear and fix the lower ones, and only then can the lower ones be removed. The remaining “butts” are cleared with vertical cuts with a knife. The remains of the bedding are dismantled, and then the remains of the fastenings of the pit walls. Finally, they dig the bottom of the grave hole with a shovel to discover hiding places and things hidden
whelped by rodents in burrows. In some cases, rodent burrows can be traced with a probe.
The diary notes the orientation and position of the bones of the skeleton: where it was facing with the crown of the head, face, position of the lower jaw, tilt of the head to the shoulder, position of the arms and legs, crouched position, etc. The depth of each thing is indicated, its position at the skeleton (at the right temple, on the middle finger of the left hand, etc.), and also gives their detailed description. On the drawing, in the diary during the description and on the label attached to the item, its number is indicated. The burial must be photographed. It is advisable not to pour soil out of the vessels, since underneath it there may be remnants of food given to the deceased “in the next world.” Laboratory analysis of these residues can reveal their nature. Then all the bones of the skeleton and every single bone of the skull are taken, even destroyed ones - they are important for anthropological conclusions. For laboratory analysis, you need to take the remains of wood from the coffin.
In some cases, the bones of the skeleton are poorly preserved. To find out whether there was a burial in a given mound or grave, you can use the phosphate analysis method, which will show a high content of phosphates in the place where the corpse lay, or their absence if there was no burial.
Excavation of wells and pits. The entrance well or inclined passage (dromos) of earthen crypts is excavated in the same way as ordinary pits, i.e., from above along the spot, in layers of 20 cm. Having reached the entrance to the lining, they dismantle and carefully fix the mortgage covering it and inspect the inside of the lining. Having determined its direction and dimensions, mark them at the top and excavate the lining from above; Excavation of this cave or crypt from below threatens a collapse. In this case, the excavation pit should be slightly larger than the crypt, and in the middle and across the pit a ledge 40–60 cm high should be left to trace the profile, which is important when approaching the burial chamber. Excavations are being carried out to the level of the surviving parts of the crypt walls. Upon reaching the chamber, excavations are also carried out along the layers. After removing the filling, a plan and a section of the chamber are drawn, it is determined how much lower it used to be, other features are recorded, for example, couches, traces of tools on the walls of the crypt (width, depth, concavity of the traces), and then they begin to clear the skeleton.
When clearing crypts carved into the rock, as well as deep holes in other reliably strong soil, such precautions are not required and their cleaning from the earthen filling can be done from the side, i.e. directly through the entrance hole, but here you need to be very careful, following the rules safety precautions.
Often, earthen and stone crypts are robbed back in ancient times. The robbers penetrated them by digging passages into mounds-mines, as pre-revolutionary archaeologists called them, which must be traced, excavated (also from above) and dated (at least approximately). If there are several predatory moves, it is advisable to determine their order.
The study and recording of stone or rock-cut crypts is carried out according to the rules for studying above-ground structures (see p. 264).
When opening the basements and crypts, the mortgage, possible niches and beds, features of the pit and crypt (for example, rounded corners, inclined walls, asymmetry of the plan) are recorded. In the event that when opening the pit
in its filling there will be soil spots, paint spots, spots from rotten pillars, etc., they also need to be included on the plan indicating the depth and thickness (thickness) of these spots. Discovered shards, things, bones are taken as finds and placed in the background with a mark of the depth and serial number of the find. The outline of the grave pit is drawn on all plans.
In addition to the drawing recording, all of the above and other features of the structure of the grave (depth, dimensions, color and composition of the soil, etc.) are recorded in writing in the excavation diary (see p. 275, note D).
Skeleton positions. The position of the skeleton in the grave pit may be different. There are elongated bones, lying on the back or on the side with bent legs; Sometimes the dead were buried in a sitting position. In each of these cases there may be variations: for example, in one case the arms are extended along the body, in another - crossed on the stomach, in the third - only one arm is extended, etc. Moreover, even in one burial ground there is often no uniformity in the position of the skeleton . Thus, in the Oleneostrovsky burial ground, in 118 graves there were elongated bones lying on their backs, in 11 pits the dead were lying on their sides, there were 5 crouched burials, and 4 buried in an upright position.
The deceased could be placed in a grave without a coffin, especially when a ramp was built over the grave. To isolate the body from the ground, it was wrapped in a shroud or, for example, birch bark. The so-called tiled tombs are known, where a kind of house of cards was built over the deceased from tiles. The simplest coffins were log coffins, hollowed out from a log split in half. In some places they still bury people in such coffins. Sometimes burials, especially children's ones, were contained in clay vessels. If the burial took place in a stone or earthen crypt, the deceased was sometimes placed in a wooden or stone sarcophagus. In ancient necropolises, there are often similar coffins made of stone slabs, called stone boxes or slab graves (each wall of such a grave consists of one slab). Large wooden sarcophagi with flat lids could be inserted into such a stone frame.
There is usually one skeleton in one grave pit, but sometimes there are two or even more such skeletons.
At the same time, it is important to note their relative position: side by side, one at the feet of the other, with their heads in opposite directions, etc. It is necessary to find out the sequence of these burials, that is, which of them took place earlier and which later. The skeleton may show signs of violent death (killing of slaves and wives during the burial of the master). Some bones are lined with stones. Skeletons found in a sitting position often rest with their backs on a pile of stones; on other skeletons lie heavy stones and even millstones, etc. These examples indicate how diverse the cases of corpse deposition are and how difficult it is to count on any specific position of the buried person.
Orientation of the buried. In graves of different times and in different territories there is no uniformity in the orientation of the skeleton, but in each cemetery burials oriented along a certain side of the horizon usually predominate. At the same time, there is almost never a strict orientation of those buried with their heads, say, exactly west or exactly north. This is explained by the fact that in ancient times the countries of the world were determined by the place of sunrise, and it changes depending on the seasons. If this is true, then, bearing in mind the basic orientation of those buried in the burial ground or mound group under study, one can judge the time of year in which the burial took place in a given mound or in a given grave.
In those cemeteries where people belonging to different ethnic groups are buried (for example, near the borders of settlement of these groups, on trade routes, etc.), the unequal orientation of the buried serves as a sure sign of their different ethnicity.
In some cases, the skeleton may be disturbed and the burial robbed, but this should not weaken the researcher’s attention. On the contrary, you need to show maximum observation in order to find out the reason for the deviation from the usual order. The order of the bones could have been disturbed by robbers or when a second person was buried next to the first. In this case, the bones are piled up. Finally, the bones could have been dragged away by shrew animals or displaced due to landslides. It is important to clarify these circumstances and the time when they occurred.
Corpse burning. If in the filling of the pit there are thin layers of light ash, ash, large coals,
Rice. 39. Scheme of the mound embankment:
a - a mound built at the same time; b - a small mound, completely covered by a later mound; c - a mound in a blurred form; d - reconstruction of the original appearance of the same mound. (According to V.D. Blavatsky)
It is very likely that this grave contains a cremation. The individual features of this rite are even more numerous than those for the deposition of a corpse, but their combinations are quite stable.
With a moundless ritual, there can be two main cases of burial: the burning of a funeral pyre above the grave, which is rare, and its burning on the side, on a specially prepared site, when the burnt bones, things from the funeral equipment and part of the pyre were transferred to the grave. In this case, the burnt bones can be placed in a clay pot-urn, but they can also be placed without it.
Due to the fact that the grave always contains only a small part of the fire pit (burnt-out fire) or an equally small pile of coals and ash transferred from the fire, their opening and clearing can be considered as part of clearing the mound fire pit.
Excavation of burial mounds. Like the study of burial grounds, excavations of mounds begin with drawing up a general plan of the monument, i.e., a mound group. This plan makes it possible to present both the entire monument as a whole and its individual parts and draw up a plan for their study. If the mound group is small (two to three dozen mounds), first of all it is necessary to dig the collapsing mounds, and if there are none, then the mounds located on the edge, since in this case the group retains its monolithic structure.
An admixture of very small coals is also found in the filling of grave pits containing corpses.
ness and it is more difficult to plow up. If the center of the group is excavated, the existence of the mounds will be in danger. When studying large mound groups (a hundred or more mounds), divided into separate parts, one must strive to excavate all the mounds and each of these groups completely in order to be able to chronologically divide the cemetery using mass material.
Techniques for excavating a mound embankment must meet the following conditions: complete identification of stratigraphy
embankments, including ditches, pits, etc.; timely (without damage) identification of all holes in the embankment (for example, inlet burials), structures (stone linings, log houses, etc.), things; identification (and therefore safety) of skeletons, fireplaces and all things with them, hiding places, linings and other structures lying below the horizon.
Studying the appearance of the embankment. In accordance with these conditions, the study of the mound chosen for excavation begins with its photography and description. The description should indicate the shape of the mound (hemispheric, segment-shaped, semi-ovoid, in the form of a truncated pyramid, etc.), the steepness of its slopes (more in some places, less in others), turf on the surface, and the presence of bushes and trees on the mound. It is also necessary to indicate whether there are ditches, on which side they are located, and where the jumpers are left. The description also notes ringing (stone lining), damage to the embankment by pits, etc.
The best way to study a burial mound would be to excavate in the reverse order of its construction, so that the last shovels of soil thrown onto the mound would be removed first, and the handfuls of earth thrown on the buried person would be cleaned off last. Such an ideal excavation would open up great opportunities for the archaeologist. But, unfortunately, such a scheme for studying mounds is unrealistic. After all, it is not always possible to determine which part of the soil entered the embankment in the first place, which in the third, and which in the tenth. This is possible only as a result of a careful study of mound profiles and plans. Therefore, it is impossible to know the structure of the mound before its excavation. But this scheme determines the purpose of the excavations: to completely restore the sequence of construction of the mound, and subsequently explain this order.
These purposes are served by excavating mounds for demolition, that is, with the complete demolition of the entire mound embankment, during which the order of its excavation in parts is chosen. At the same time, the nature of the mound and its parts, the nature and structure of all structures (main and inlet burials, crypts, fireplaces, things, etc.) are clarified. The disadvantages of the previous method, when the mound was dug with a well, or at best, two trenches, are obvious. Thus, when examining the mound of a large mound in Besedy with a well, it would not be possible to detect its main feature - the annular groove surrounding the central part of the mound. V.I. Sizov, who explored the large Gnezdovo mound with a trench, admitted that he had not opened the main part of the fire pit. Kurgan near the village Yagodnogo, excavated by a well, yielded only a modern burial of a dead cow. In the same mound, when it was excavated for demolition, more than 30 Bronze Age burials were discovered.
If the mound is overgrown with large trees, it is better to postpone its excavation, since trees do little to spoil the burial, and in the process of excavation and uprooting of roots, this burial can be damaged.
Studying the structure of the embankment. Thus, demolition excavations involve strict procedures and firm excavation requirements. The structure of the embankment and its composition (mainland soil, cultural layer, imported soil) must be identified and recorded, for which it is most convenient to trace its structure in several vertical sections - profiles, the significance of which was discussed above.
In order to be able to fix the layers in a vertical section, it is necessary to leave an edge, which is demolished at the end of the excavation (or demolished in parts during the excavation process).
Measurement of the mound. Before excavation, the mound must be measured and marked. The most characteristic point of a mound is its top, which often coincides with the geometric center of the mound. This highest point, regardless of whether it coincides or does not coincide with the center of the mound, is taken as the starting point and marked with a peg. Using a compass or compass placed on this central stake, the direction is sighted: north - south (N - S) and west - east
(3 - B), and these directions are marked with temporary pegs placed at an arbitrary distance from each other.
One end of the lath is pressed against the base of the central stake, and the other is oriented in the direction of one of the four radii of the mound, and the lath is installed horizontally (aligned). At the meter divisions, the slats install a plumb line and, according to the readings of its weight, the pegs are driven in. If the length of the strip is not enough to mark a given direction, its end is transferred to the last hammered peg and the operation is repeated. The line of pegs must cross the ditch, if there is one. When the radius of the mound is marked, the temporary pegs are removed and the position of the newly driven stakes is checked using a compass or compass mounted on the central stake.
In the same way, check the markings of other radii.
Care must be taken in this case, because in some mounds, in the exact center of the mound, directly under the turf, there is a burial urn or vessel, which can easily be pierced by the central stake.
If, when hanging meter marks, you measure the distance from the lower edge of the horizontal staff to the surface of the mound (along the plumb line), the resulting figures will show how much lower the given point is than the one on which the end of the staff stands, i.e., a leveling mark for this point will be obtained. These figures are entered into the leveling plan. If the length of the staff was not enough and it was moved one or more times, then to obtain a leveling mark it is necessary to add to the mark obtained by measuring the distance from the staff to the ground the sum of the marks of all points at which the end of the staff stood in succession. In this case, the foot of the central stake (the highest point of the embankment) is taken as the zero mark, and all the resulting leveling marks are negative. It should be noted that much more accurate results are obtained by working with a level, which, in addition, saves time. This simple, accurate and common device should be used by every expedition.
Leveling marks at the base of the mound provide a measurement of its height. Since from the moment the mound was filled, its height could decrease due to erosion by sediments and melt water, weathering, plowing, or increase due to the accumulation of sedimentary rocks or soil formation, the true height of the mound is determined only during the excavation process (the distance from the level of the buried soil to the top of the mound). Therefore, before excavation, its height can be measured approximately. Due to the fact that the mound is usually located on sloping terrain, its height will be different on all sides, and these marks are recorded in the diary. In this case, one must be able to highlight the foot of the mound, and not measure the height from the bottom of the ditch or from its walls. A tape measure is then laid along this ditch-fill boundary to obtain a measurement of the circumference of the mound's base. The circumference of the base of the mound is also recorded in the diary. Based on the data obtained, a plan for leveling the mound is drawn up. Ditches and lintels are recorded on the same plan, and their length, width and depth are noted in the diary. The diameters of the mounds are measured without ditches.
Height and coordinate readings. From the above it follows that height measurements (or, one might say, depth) and coordinate measurements are made from the highest point of the embankment. But this point will be demolished over time. Therefore, for the convenience of measurements, you can drive a stake flush with the ground next to the mound and level its top. You can also use a level to mark the height of this point of the mound on a nearby tree. But it is possible to restore the height mark of the mound using any of the surviving leveled stakes (see p. 303).
Brovki. Finally, edges are marked on the mound, which are needed to obtain a profile, i.e., a vertical section of the embankment, which will make it possible to determine its structure. Due to the fact that the most characteristic section of the mound should be obtained (and the most characteristic point of the mound is its center), the axial lines of the mound, along which one of the sides of the edges should pass, are taken as the basis for the edges, unless there are other reasons. The profile should be drawn (again, unless there are other reasons) on the side of the edge that passes through the axis of the mound. You need to leave two mutually perpendicular edges. For asymmetrical or very large embankments, the number of edges can be increased. The specific placement of the edges depends on the shape of the monument being studied. We must strive to obtain the most characteristic cuts.
Rice. 42. Plan of trenches for studying the embankment and ditches:
the trenches cross the ditch, so there is no trench from the north, since there is no ditch there; trenches are dug from the outside of the edges in order to later expose their profile in the ditches
For example, in elongated mounds the most characteristic cut will be longitudinal; in damaged embankments it is important to obtain a profile passing through the damage; in mounds with a corpse on the horizon, it is desirable to obtain a profile (i.e., an image of the edge wall) running perpendicular to the bone, etc. Where the position of the edges is indifferent, it is more convenient to orient them along countries of the world.
Marking the edges is simple. From each meter mark along the central axis, a selected thickness of the edge is laid off in one direction perpendicular to the axis and marked with a notch. Subsequently, the notches are connected along the cord with a solid line.
Clay soil allows a minimum thickness of edges of 20-50 cm, and they stand without crumbling at a height of 2 m. In sandy soil, an edge of any thickness crumbles already at a height of 100-120 cm, and therefore requires continuous fixation of the layers.
Roviki. The original size of the mounds is interesting because, based on their volume, it is possible to decide whether the earth for the construction of the mound was brought from outside or whether it was built entirely using the soil from the ditches. It is also important that ditches are ritual structures, which is often forgotten. Finally, ditches mark the original boundary of the mound. Due to the fact that the ditches surrounding the mound have partially swollen, their original size and nature can only be determined by excavations, which begin the excavation work on the mound. At the same time, across
Narrow trenches (30 - 40 cm) are laid in the ditches, one side of which is adjacent to the front (passing through the axis of the mound) side of the edge, which is done so that the desired profile of the ditch is included in the drawing of the entire edge. In this section, the original dimensions of the ditch and its filling are clearly visible. At the bottom of the ditch there is often a layer of coal, representing the remains of a cleansing fire, burned after the construction of the embankment and, probably, lit at a funeral.
Guided by the resulting cut, the ditch is opened along its entire length.
The side of the trench facing the center of the mound is also cleared, since in this part the ribbon of buried (filled with mound embankment) turf is clearly visible, and, therefore, the level of the “horizon” and the original dimensions of the mound can be easily determined.
If the floors of two adjacent mounds are located one on top of the other, then it is recommended that at the point of their confluence along the line connecting the tops of both mounds, dig the same narrow trench, allowing you to decide which of these mounds was poured earlier: the layers of its floors should go under the floor of the second one. late embankment.
Sod removal. After drawing the resulting profiles and opening the ditches, they begin to remove the turf layer from the mound embankment.
It is best to remove the turf in small pieces, since there may be ancient things and even vessels with remains of a corpse in it and under it.
When discarding earth, you should not sprinkle either the mound of the mound being excavated, so as not to do double work, or the neighboring mounds, as this can change their shape and lead to misunderstandings during subsequent excavations.
When excavating steppe mounds, the shape of which has changed greatly, determining the boundaries of the mound is difficult. Often such an embankment occupies a significant area and is not limited by ditches or any other landmarks. When excavating mounds, it is necessary to provide the possibility of cutting in case the boundaries of the embankment turn out to be inaccurately defined, and therefore the earth should be thrown far enough away.
Excavation of the embankment. Excavations of the mound embankment are carried out in layers. They are carried out simultaneously in all sectors of the mound, into which the edges divide it (best in rings, see p. 160). The first layers must be divided into two parts - 10 cm each, since the remains of pillars and structures are possible at the top. Yes, on
On flat mounds in Denmark, fences made of pillars and houses have been traced. Therefore, the base of each layer is cleaned to identify various soil spots. The remaining layers can be 20 cm thick. The edges are not dug.
In case of stains from pillars or other origins, a plan of this surface is drawn, indicating its depth from the top of the mound. For ash spots, if they are found in the embankment, a plan is drawn up on which the contours of each spot are given with a special dotted line or line, the legend indicates the depth of appearance of this spot, and the diary indicates its size and thickness.
The presence of coal in the mound does not always indicate corpse burning. Coal sometimes comes from firewood burned for ritual purposes. The things found in the mound are primarily important for determining the time when the mound was filled, since they might not have been there when buried. In this case, it is necessary to check the simultaneity of the finds in the embankment with the burial, i.e., to establish whether the things found got into the embankment due to digging, etc. These things are also important for the study of the funeral rite. The custom is known ethnographically when those present at a funeral threw small things (“gifts” to the deceased) into the grave or when, during burial, pots with the remains of food served at the wake, etc., were broken.
the walker (of things, shards, bones) in the mound, a separate plan is drawn up. Each find is recorded under a number on the plan and briefly described in the diary.
Inlet burials. In the mound mound there may be later burials, the burial pit of which was dug in the already finished mound of the old mound. Above such burials - they are called inlet - there may be a spot of a grave pit, which is sometimes opened by clearing the base of the next
layer. When opening such a spot, proceed in the same way as when opening a grave in the ground. If the spot of the pit is not visible, when opening the skeleton, you can try to leave an edge crossing it in order to catch the remains of the grave pit. Clearing the skeleton occurs as described above. Inlet burials should not be confused with burials on a specially made earthen bed: the latter is most often located in the center of the mound, and the inlet burial is in the field. But the nature of the burial is finally clarified only after a complete examination of the mound.
E. A. Schmidt also points to burials made on a site prepared on the surface of an older mound. The mound was then filled in and became much higher and wider. Such burials are called additional burials. They are clearly visible in the edges.
The approach of the main burial can be judged by the signs already described. It should only be noted that the deflection of the layers at the edge may indicate not only an approach to the burial, but also to the grave pit.
When opening a burial that goes under the edge, it has to be demolished. Before demolition, the edge is cleared, outlined and photographed. Then it is dismantled, but not completely, and not reaching 20 - 40 cm to the base, and only
over the burial it is removed completely. The remains of the edge later help to restore it and trace the profile to the mainland (required!). However, in cases where the edge threatens to collapse, it is necessary to reduce its height before reaching the burial.
Registration of finds of soil and other spots is carried out in a rectangular coordinate system, the beginning of which is the center of the mound; Therefore, it is important to maintain the position of the center point not only vertically, but also horizontally. To restore the position of the center after demolishing the edge, you need to pull the cord between the remaining outer pegs of the N-S and 3-E axis. Their intersection will be the desired center. Therefore, it is important to protect the outermost stakes of the center lines from damage. As a last resort, if the stakes are preserved only on one side of the center, the center line can be provisioned again using a compass from the remaining stakes. When approaching the burial, it is better to make do with the possibility of restoring the center than to drive in the central stake, so as not to damage the burial.
Clearing the main burial occurs in the order described above. After removing things and dismantling the skeleton, both in the case of a burial on the bedding and in the case of a burial on the horizon, excavations of the area of the mound continue in layers: first until the buried turf or the surface on which the mound was erected, and then until the mainland has been reached, that is, all the buried soil must be removed, the thickness of which is sometimes, especially in black earth regions, very significant (1 m or more). In this case, it may turn out that the mound was built on the cultural layer of an early settlement, or on buried soil, or on a scorched continent, etc.
The surface of the continent is cleared to reveal caches and pits, including a burial pit, which is possible even when one or more burials have already been discovered in the mound or on the horizon.
Identification of burial pits and clearing of burials in these pits is carried out using techniques used during excavations of burial grounds.
Signs of cremation. If a burial mound contains a corpse, weak layers of ash or ash usually appear in the mound, moving from place to place. The methods for excavating such an embankment are no different from the methods for excavating mounds with corpses.
The fact that the mound contains cremation is sometimes revealed when trenches are dug to examine the ditches. Then, in the walls of the trenches facing the center of the mound, a ribbon of buried turf is visible, and on it is the ashes of the fire pit. In this case, the buried turf is often burned and in this case it is a white sandy layer of varying thickness (if the continent is sandy, the layer is thick, if it is clayey, the layer is thin), which is the result of burning the grass cover.
Fireplace and its description. Most often, the fireplace does not open immediately. First, ash spots appear in the embankment, the number of which increases as they deepen. All ash spots and especially possible burnt bones, coals or brands in them must be marked on the plan and described in the diary. These spots move from place to place, become thicker and occupy an increasingly larger area.
When they begin to predominate in this area, it is necessary to remove the soil using horizontal rather than vertical cuts. Soon the entire exposed surface becomes pockmarked with ash stains. This is the top surface of the fire pit.
In the center the fire pit is black and thick, towards the edges it is gray and tapers out to nothing. In mounds with a sandy embankment it is plump, thick, its thickness reaches 30-50 cm, in clay soil it is compressed, 3-10 cm thick.
Even before going to the fireplace, you need to draw the profiles of the mound and lower the edges so that they rise above the fireplace by no more than 10 - 20 cm. To approximate the depth, it is convenient to make the surface of the lowered edges strictly horizontal and know its leveling mark.
Then the fire pit should be described. First of all, its shape attracts attention. Most often, the fireplace is elongated, does not have a regular shape, its borders are tortuous; sometimes its shape approaches a rectangle. The middle point of the fire pit often does not coincide with the center of the mound. The dimensions of the fireplace as a whole and each of its parts are measured and noted, while the composition and color of each part is described, and it is indicated where accumulations of burnt bones and large pieces of coal are found. These data are still preliminary (before clearing the fire pit), but they make it possible to imagine its structure. During the clearing process, they are clarified and supplemented with data on the power of the fire pit in its different parts, on the location and position of the funeral urn (buried in coal or not, standing normally or upside down, buried in the mainland, covered with a lid, etc.), on the location accumulations of things and their order, about the layer underlying the fireplace, etc.
Clearing fire pits and finds. To streamline the clearing of the fire pit and for the convenience of recording things found in it, it can be drawn (with the tip of a knife) with lines running parallel to the axes of the mound through a whole number of meters. A grid of squares with a side of 1 m is formed. The fire pit is cleared from its periphery to the center. The coal layer is cut vertically with a knife, parallel to the nearest center line, so that the profile of the fire pit is visible. Thus, you can trace its thickness anywhere. If things, shards and bones are found, it is necessary to indicate whether they were found under the coal layer, in it or above it, since this, in the case of an undisturbed fire, helps to judge whether the deceased was simply laid on the fire or above it there was a domino.
The size of the fireplace usually ranges from two to ten meters in diameter. In rare cases, this diameter reaches 25 m or more. With such a large fire pit, it is useful to level the corners of the drawn squares, and after clearing it, draw out the grid again and level it again. Thus, you can restore the thickness of the fireplace in any place - it will be equal to the difference in the leveling marks. When dismantling the fire pit, you need to observe the order in which the firebrands are placed in it. Their position will help determine whether the fire was stacked in a cage or lengthwise. The size of the bunts is also important. To determine the type of wood, large pieces of coal should be selected.
When coming to the surface of a large fire and when dismantling it, waste ash, coals and earth should be poured into wheelbarrows and buckets so as not to be trampled into the ground again.
Things found in a fire pit are immediately recorded and packed, since clearing a fire pit sometimes takes several days and leaving the cleared things in the open air threatens their safety. Leaving things on the fireplace to find out their relative position does not make sense, since the fireplace is usually disturbed: before the construction of the embankment
it was raked towards the center of the mound.
Each find is registered and packaged under a separate number, like a shard or an individual find. If things are stuck together, it is better not to separate them until processed in the laboratory. Poorly preserved objects (but not fabrics) can be fixed by spraying them with a weak solution of BF-4 glue. In some cases they can be taken into a plaster mold.
You should immediately distinguish between objects that were in the fire of the funeral pyre and those that were already placed on the cooled pyre. More often this can be done based on signs of damaged items. Iron resists fire best due to its highest melting point. Depending on the position of the iron item on the fire, it may be found covered with rust or a thin layer of black shiny scale, as if blued. This scale prevents the iron from breaking down on the outside, but the inside of the item could be rusted through. By the layer of scale, things that were in the fire are easily distinguished.
Some objects, such as sword hilts, still have wood or bone parts. This indicates that they were placed on a cooled fire pit. Finally, the fire produced changes in the structure of the metal that could be detected by metallographic analysis during laboratory processing.
Non-ferrous metal products, such as wire, usually did not withstand fire and were either melted or melted. But some of them still come to us in their entirety, for example, belt plaques.
Glass products are preserved very poorly. Glass beads are usually found in the form of shapeless ingots, and only occasionally do they retain their original shape. Amber beads burn in fire; they reach us only when they were somehow protected from it.
Carnelian beads change color: from red they become white. Rock crystal beads become covered with cracks.
Bone items are often preserved, but change color (turn white), become very fragile and are found in fragments. These include piercings, combs, dice, etc. Wood is usually not preserved.
Determining the place of burning. It is also important to find out where the cremation took place: at the site of the embankment or on the side. In the latter case, the remains of the corpses were transferred to the site prepared for the construction of the mound in an urn, but sometimes without it. At the same time, part of the fire pit was also moved. In this case, the burnt bones are grouped only in a small “patch”; they are not located in the thickness of the fire pit.
When burning at the site of an embankment, burnt bones, albeit very small, are found both in the center of the fire pit and at its periphery. (Even the smallest bones must be taken to determine the age and sex of the buried person, which is often possible.) In a mound containing the remains of a burning carried out outside, the fire pit is small in size, there is no black greasy coal or
there is very little of it, things from the grave goods are random, the inventory is incomplete. If the funeral pyre was large, then the soil under it is burned, and the sand can turn red, and the clay becomes like brick. In pre-revolutionary literature such a place was called a point.
Cenotaphs. In ancient necropolises there are empty graves - cenotaphs. They, like real graves, had above-ground monuments, but only individual objects were buried in the ground, symbolizing the position of the corpse. There were, for example, parts of an imaginary lining. Cenotaphs were built in honor of people who died far from their homeland.
If the existence of ancient cenotaphs is undoubted, then there is a debate about similar ancient Russian burial structures. The basis for discussion is the fact that in some mounds there are no remains of corpse burning either in the mound or on the horizon, and the fire pit is a layer of very light ash. Opponents of the idea of ancient Russian cenotaphs believe that such mounds contained the remains of corpse burnings carried out outside, and the urns with ashes were placed high in the mound, almost under the turf, and destroyed by random visitors to the mounds. Cases where urns are placed under turf and a pale, featureless fireplace lies on the horizon are known, but there are not many such mounds and it is difficult to assume that in more than half of such mounds the urns were lost. It is more likely that most of the mounds, where there are no traces of corpse burning, were monuments to people who died in a foreign land. A light fire in such mounds is a trace of the burning of straw, which played an important role in the funeral rite.
It is difficult to distinguish between these two possible cases of mound construction, and for an accurate determination of the significance of such mounds, the most inconspicuous and seemingly insignificant facts observed both during the excavation of the mound and during the clearing of the fire pit are important.
However, mounds in which the skeleton has not been preserved should not be considered as not containing burials. Such cases occur especially in burials of infants. The bones of not only children, but often also adults, are poorly preserved, especially in sandy or damp soil. Phosphate analysis can serve as a method for checking the position of a corpse.
The layer underlying the fire pit and the continent. After the fire pit has been cleared to the border of the reduced edges, the underlying layer is examined. These could be the remains of buried turf, the possible appearance of which is described above, or a thin layer of sand sprinkled under a fire; the fireplace could be located on a special elevation made of clay or sand; finally, the mainland could lie under the fireplace. This underlying layer (for example, a layer of burnt turf), if it is thin, is disassembled with a knife, like a fire pit, or, if it reaches sufficient thickness, it is dug out into layers (for example, bedding under a fire pit). Moreover, before reaching the mainland, it is advisable not to disassemble or lower the edges, in order to visually represent the connection of the fire pit, visible in the section of the edges, with the underlying layers and the mainland.
In some cases, the mound and the mainland are difficult to distinguish from each other. The criterion for distinction may be the layer of buried turf, which can be noticeable even at the beginning of excavations of the mound when examining the ditch. Sometimes this layer is not traced at all in the mound. In this case, you can rely on the difference in density of the embankment and the mainland. Observations on the structure of the embankment and the continent are of great importance. In the latter, in some cases, veins of ferruginous and other formations are visible, which are not found in the embankment.
To be more confident that the mainland has been reached, you can dig a hole on the side and compare the color and structure of the continent revealed in it with the nature of the surface exposed in the mound.
To identify things that may be in rodent burrows and in random depressions on the continent, he digs to the thickness of one layer. This may reveal sub-fire pits extending into the mainland. These pits are cleared in the same way as burial pits. Many of them contain items from grave goods.
At the end of the excavation, the edges are drawn and disassembled. This dismantling occurs in layers: the remains of the embankment covering the coal-ash layer are dismantled, the fire pit is separated, then the sub-fire layer and bedding, if any.
Varieties of mound excavation techniques. As the experience of studying burial mounds of the Bronze Age has shown, it is important not only to excavate the mounds, but also to explore the space between the mounds, where burials are also discovered. Often these are slave burials.
The space between the burial mounds is explored with a probe and a moving search trench.
Siberian mounds, despite their relatively low height, have a large diameter. Their mound often consists of stones. The soil layer underlying the mound is usually so thin that the burial hole is already carved into the rock. These pits are often extensive (up to 7X7 m) and deep. All this requires special techniques for excavating a mound embankment, which are also used during excavations in other areas.
The height of Siberian mounds usually does not exceed two and a half meters, and the diameter of the mound reaches 25 m. After breaking out the central axes, lines running parallel to the N-S axis are marked on the western and eastern sides of the mound at a distance of 6-7 m from the edge of the mound. This distance is the range of the earth and stones thrown by the digger. Initially, the floors of the embankment are cut to the marked lines and the resulting profiles are drawn. Then lines parallel to axis 3 - B are broken on the southern and northern sides of the mound at the same distance from its edge, and the edges of the embankment from the south and north are cut off to these lines. After this, half of the remaining quadrangle is excavated along the center line N - S, and the earth is thrown as close as possible to the first throw. After drawing the profile, the last remains of the embankment are excavated. Thus, when excavating stone embankments, the examination of their sections occurs without the help of edges, which under these conditions are unstable and cumbersome.
This technique allows the dump to be placed compactly; it occupies a ring strip no closer than 2 m from the edge of the mound, in the center of which there is a large area needed in case a grave pit is discovered.
Of course, techniques for excavating an embankment in horizontal layers, leveling it, clearing the skeleton, techniques for accessing the mainland and other rules that are mandatory for
excavations of earthen embankments are no less mandatory in the case of excavations of mounds filled with stones.
Another method of excavating Siberian mounds, just like the first, was developed and applied by L. A. Evtyukhova. After dividing the central axes, chords are drawn connecting the points of intersection of the central axes of the mound's circumference. First of all, the floors of the mound, cut off by these chords, are excavated, then the opposite sectors of the remaining quadrangle are excavated, the profiles are drawn and the remains are dug out.
For mounds with a stone fence, M.P. Gryaznov proposed a research method that involves removing all the stones that have fallen from the fence, leaving those that lie in their original place. Such untouched stones usually end up lying on the horizon. They are used to determine the shape of the fence, its thickness and even its height. The latter is reconstructed based on the total mass of the stone rubble.
Ice-filled mounds. In some mountainous Altai regions, grave pits under stone embankments are filled with ice. This happened because water flowed quite easily through the embankment (usually disturbed by robbers), which stagnated in the grave pit. In winter, the water froze, and in the summer it did not have time to thaw, since the sun could not warm the mound embankment and the deep burial pit. Over time, the entire pit turned out to be filled with ice, the adjacent ground also froze and a lens of frozen soil formed outside the permafrost zone.
It is interesting to note that the moment of robbery of such pits is precisely determined by the stratigraphy of the ice, which becomes cloudy and yellow, since the water, originally filtered by the embankment, has already begun to penetrate directly through the robbery hole.
In the pits of such mounds, log houses were found, separate for people and horses. The log houses were covered with logs, brushwood was placed over the logs, and then an embankment was erected. Burials of this type, due to the preservation of organic substances in them, yield remarkable finds, but the permafrost, which ensures this preservation, creates the main difficulty during excavations.
Rice. 50. Scheme of permafrost formation in a Pazyryk-type mound: a - atmospheric precipitation penetrates into the newly filled mound and accumulates in the burial chamber; b - in winter, the water accumulated in the chamber froze, and water flowed onto the formed ice again; c - the chamber was filled to the top with ice; the soil adjacent to the chamber is also frozen
S.I. Rudenko, who dug the Pazyryk and other similar mounds, resorted to melting the ice with hot water when clearing the chamber. Water was heated in boilers and poured over the ice filling of the chamber. Grooves were cut into the ice to collect used water and water formed from melting ice, and it was heated again. The sun also contributed to the melting of the ice, but it was impossible to count on solar heat, since this process occurred too slowly.
With this method of clearing, special attention was paid to methods of conserving the things found.
In addition to burial grounds and mound groups, single graves are also often found. In Siberia they are marked with stones and sometimes enclosed in stone fences. The methods for identifying them do not differ from those described above, but such a grave must be opened within the fence, capturing the latter.
Excavations in “rings”. When studying some mounds in Ukraine, Siberia and the Volga region, B. N. Grakov, S. V. Kislev and N. Ya. Merpert used the “ring” method of excavating them. These were low (0.1 - 2 m) wide (10 - 35 m) embankments. In Ukraine and the Volga region, these mounds consisted of black soil. After marking the central axes and breaking out the edges, the embankment was divided into two or three ring-shaped zones. The first zone - * 3 - 5 m wide - ran along the edge of the mound, the second - 4 - 5 m wide - adjoined it, and in the center of the mound there remained a small part of the mound in the form of a cylinder.
First, the outer ring was excavated, and the earth was thrown back as far as possible. The burial structures encountered (rollings made of logs) and burials were left on the “butts”. The embankment was excavated to the mainland, upon reaching which the burial pits and abandoned burials going into it were cleared. After appropriate fixation of these pits and burials, excavations of the second ring began, and the earth was thrown into the place vacated after the excavations of the first ring, but possibly further from the boundaries of the second. The study of the mound and burials followed the same procedure. Finally, a cylindrical remains was excavated. Finally, the profile of the central edges was drawn, and they were also dismantled to the mainland.
This method of excavation saved labor, ensured a complete exploration of the mound embankment and clearing, but did not allow one to imagine all the burials at once (and there may be 30 - 40 of them in Bronze Age mounds). It must be said that for such a simultaneous examination it is difficult to choose an economical technique that justifies this goal. Therefore, the described method can be recommended.
It is interesting to point out that in the mounds of the Volga region the level of buried soil corresponds to the level of the modern surface near the mound, but under the buried soil lies a layer of chernozem up to 1 m thick, from which the light sandy or clayey continent is sharply different. Therefore, the pits going into it were clearly visible, while the pits of inlet burials in the mound were very rarely traced. Casting out of continental pits usually helped to detect the level of buried soil.
High mounds. If the mound is not only wide, but also high (diameter 30 - 40 m, height 5 - 7 m), it is impossible to excavate its embankment by cutting off the floors, firstly, because the further from its edge, the greater the volume of discarded earth , which will not be able to fit into the place cleared after the excavation of the next “ring”. Consequently, the earth must be transported from the foot of the mound. Secondly, it is impossible to cut the floors of a steep embankment because it creates a high cliff, threatening landslides and making access to the mound difficult.
This method can be used to excavate such mounds. To clarify the structure of an embankment with a diameter of 30 - 40 m, its study with two central edges is not enough. Given the size of the mound, it can be recommended to divide six edges, of which three should run from north to south, and three from west to east. However, due to the special shape of the mound, sometimes it is necessary to change the direction of several or even all edges in order to obtain profiles of the mound in other, more necessary places. The recommended number of edges is also not necessary, but it creates certain conveniences in work.
Two edges are drawn through the center of the mound. The rest are broken parallel to them on all four sides, preferably at the same distance from the center, equal to half the radius of the embankment. Excavations begin from the outer sections of the embankment, extending beyond the line of the side edges. They are made in horizontal layers and are carried out until the surface being removed is approximately 1.5 m below the top of the cut. After this, the resulting side sections are drawn and the workers are transferred to the central part of the mound, which is excavated until the difference in the levels of the central and the outermost areas will not be equal to 20 - 40 cm. Then the outer areas are excavated again, and so on until the burial is reached, and after clearing it, the mainland. From time to time it is necessary to reduce the height of the central edges to avoid their collapse. Thus, with this technique, there are no extreme edges and sections of the mound embankment are directly drawn.
In some cases, this technique can be combined with the “ring” excavation technique. When the height of the mound is reduced to approximately 2 m, its area can be divided into 2-3 zones, which are successively brought to the mainland. In this case, it is more convenient to take rectangular rather than ring-shaped zones, so that their excavation does not interfere with the drawing of the side profiles.
Mechanization of work during excavation of burial mounds. For a long time, archaeologists were convinced that the use of machines in excavations was impossible. The turning point occurred in 1947, when the Novgorod expedition used 15-meter conveyors with electric motors to throw out soil, and then skips, i.e. boxes moving along an overpass. The movement of previously examined soil by machines did not raise any objections. However, the use of machines during the excavation of mound embankments, and especially the cultural layer, was accepted with doubts.
Currently, there are frequent cases of using technology when excavating mounds (for the use of machines when excavating settlements, see Chapter 4). In accordance with the conditions that ensure a complete study of the mounds, the criteria for the possibility of using earthmoving machines on monuments of this type are: 1) identification of stratigraphy, including complex ones, and, therefore, the removal of the embankment in layers of small thickness and good horizontal (layers) must be ensured. and vertical (edge) stripping; 2) timely (without damage) identification of the item and cleaning of stains from pits (for example, inlet burials) and wood decay (for example, the remains of log houses); 3) the safety of skeletons, fire pits, etc. is ensured. If these conditions are met during excavations using earthmoving machines, then their use is possible.
Using machines to transport waste soil is almost always possible. The exception is mound groups with closely spaced mounds, where machines can fill up neighboring mounds, distort their shape, or damage them. If the machines are not difficult to maneuver, they can carry earth over a considerable distance, which will provide freedom to use proper excavation techniques.
When excavating mound embankments with machines, one must clearly understand the capabilities of both types of earth-moving machines used for this purpose. One of them is a scraper, first used by M.I. Artamonov in the work of the Volga-Don expedition in the early 50s. It is a trailed unit with a steel blade and a bucket for loading cut soil. The width of the knife is 165 - 315 cm (depending on the type of machine), the depth of layer removal is 7-30 cm. Due to the fact that the scraper wheels go in front of the earth-moving unit, the cleaned surface is not damaged by them. A scraper with side knives does a good job of cleaning not only the bottom of the formation, but also the side surfaces (edge).
In a bulldozer, the blade (225 - 295 cm wide) is fixed in front of the tractor driving it, so observation of the cleared surface is possible only in a short space between the blade and the tracks. When a bulldozer is operating, an expedition employee has to walk next to the machine and detect changes in the ground literally on the move, and having caught it, stop the machine. Therefore, the bulldozer must operate at low speed.
Compared to a scraper, a bulldozer is more maneuverable and more productive for moving soil over a distance of up to 50 m. When transporting earth 100 or more
meters it is more profitable to use a scraper. Thus, a scraper is a machine more suitable for archaeological purposes than a bulldozer. But every collective farm has a bulldozer, so it is more accessible than the relatively rare scraper.
Neither a bulldozer nor a scraper can be used on small, steep mounds, or on mounds filled with loose sand. In the case of steep embankments, these machines cannot drive onto their tops, and for small and sandy mounds, both mechanisms are too rough. Thus, all Slavic mounds are excluded from the list of objects where the use of earth-moving machines is possible. It is also impossible to use these machines when excavating mounds, the mound of which consists of a cultural layer, as happens in the necropolises of ancient cities.
The mound, built from cultural layers, is replete with finds that need to be taken into account to date the burial structure, but such accounting is impossible with mechanized excavations. It is impossible to use machines when excavating burial mounds or when digging trenches to study such ditches. These works must be done manually.
On flat mounds with a large diameter, as experience has shown, both mechanisms can work in compliance with all the conditions mentioned above. This refers to mounds with a diameter of 30 - 80 m and a height of 0.75 m (with larger diameters - up to 4 m in height).
When starting to excavate a mound using earth-moving machines, one should take into account the archaeologist’s experience in excavating archaeological sites in the area without the use of machines. In this case, the archaeologist presents the structural features of the mound and the location of the burials. When using machines, you have to abandon mutually perpendicular edges. Usually they leave one edge running through the major axis of the mound, but you can leave three or even five, but parallel edges. When laying out the edge, as usual, it is marked with pegs, a cord and dug in with a shovel. The thickness of the edge is preferably the smallest, i.e., such that the edge can withstand until the end of the excavation. Experience has shown that the best thickness of such walls is 75 cm.
The mound is excavated from the center to the edges. Excavations begin with the creation of horizontal platforms at the top of the mound on both sides of the edge. In this case, the pegs or notches marking the edge serve as a guide line for the scraper (or bulldozer). Subsequently, as each layer is removed, these horizontal platforms expand towards the edges and cover an increasingly larger area. The earth is moved beyond the embankment and the surrounding ditches, and even better if it is transported by a scraper. The edges are cleaned with vertical scraper knives, and when working with a bulldozer they are cleaned manually. A certain member of the expedition monitors possible finds, examines the cleared surfaces, walking next to the bulldozer or following the scraper. When earthen spots, traces of holes or other objects that require manual inspection appear, the machine is transferred to the second half of the embankment or to other mounds.
If it is intended to trace the profile of the mound on several edges, then the work is carried out in the corridors formed by them. It is impossible to trace the edges one by one (starting from the bottom or from the top), since this would create steep walls on which the machine would not be able to work due to the threat of collapse.
It is rational to use an earthmoving machine, especially a scraper, when excavating several mounds at the same time, when a flight in one direction ensures the removal of soil and its removal in turn from several mounds, and the number of slowly performed turns is reduced.
In the case of excavating high steep mounds, it is rational to use an earthmoving machine in combination with a conveyor. (For information on using the feed dog, see page 204.) When excavating the upper half of the embankment, a conveyor removes the excavated earth from the upper platform of the mound to its foot, and a bulldozer moves it to a certain place. After removing half of the embankment, the bulldozer can climb onto the remaining part and work continues as on ordinary steppe blurred mounds.
Safety precautions. When excavating burial mounds and burial pits, safety regulations must be observed. The cliff of the mound embankment should not be higher than one and a half to two meters, since the loose embankment is unstable. The same applies to the sandy continent. In the latter case, if it is impossible to reduce the height of the cliff, it is necessary to make bevels, that is, inclined walls along the hypotenuse of the triangle. The height of the bevel is 1.5 m, the width is 1 m, the distance between the two bevels is 1 m. If this bevel is not enough, then a series of steps of a similar type are built, with each step having a width of 0.5 m.
Walls made of mainland loess or the same clay usually hold up well, but in narrow pits it is better to secure them with spacers that rest against shields on the opposite walls of the pit. Underground rooms in soft soil should be dug from above, without relying on the strength of the ceiling.
Finally, you need to make it a rule: daily check the serviceability of tools - shovels, picks, axes, etc. In this case, you especially need to ensure that they are firmly attached so that the tool does not injure anyone.
If you dream of a fresh grave, then someone's dishonest act will cause you terrible suffering, or this dream foreshadows danger that threatens you.
A dream about a grave most often promises troubles and illness.
Walking among the graves in a dream means an unsuccessful marriage. Looking into an empty grave means the loss of loved ones.
Seeing a person half covered with earth in an unfilled grave foreshadows the danger that threatens him in reality. Seeing your grave is a harbinger of intrigues being prepared against you.
Digging a grave in a dream is a sign that your opponents are ready to crush you, but if you manage to finish your work in a dream, in reality you will defeat them. An unfavorable dream is in which you see that the corpse for which a grave was dug has disappeared - this dream promises bad news.
If you dream that night found you in a cemetery and you have to spend the night in an open grave, this means the loss of friends, the cooling of your lover.
Sometimes a grave in a dream foreshadows troubles at work.
An old, dilapidated grave means someone's dangerous illness and death.
If in a dream you read inscriptions on graves, it means that you will have unpleasant troubles.
Brain, brains Seeing your own brain in a dream means that some unfavorable circumstances will irritate you and connect you with an unpleasant companion, companion. Seeing the brains of animals portends mental suffering from everyday adversity.
If you eat brains, it means that you will unexpectedly acquire great knowledge and profit.
Interpretation of dreams from Miller's Dream BookSubscribe to the Dream Interpretation channel!